Evaporators



S. H. GILMAN.

Making Sugar.

Patented April 22, 1856.

Jdim a Z N. PETERS Photo-Lithographer. waihwgion. D. c.

iiNlliEll STATES li ament @rrrcn.

SAML, H. G ILMAN, OF NEWV ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

l a'apeov ewieni' IN SUGAR EVAPORATORS.

lpccilication forming part of Letters Patent No. 142,715 F, dated l 22, 1856- To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Beit known that l, SAMUEL H. GILMAN, of the city of New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Construction of Steam-Pans, with especial reference to their use in the manufacture of sugar direct from cane-juice.

Among the objections to all the arrangements ofheating-surface in steam-pans heretofore in use are, first, the length and position of the pipes, which necessarily produce an unequal temperature in different parts of the same body of liquid under evaporation, and consequently in concentrating or granulating sirnp into sugar in pans of the usual size and construction one portion of the sugar is cooked so much more than another portion that on mixing the different parts during the process of curing the sugar is thus nec essarily rendered unduly deliquescent, and to such an extent is this property imparted to open steanrpan sugar that it is only sold for immediate consumption; second, the arrangements of pipes horizontally necessarily ren ders about one third of their lower sides useless, by having such portions of their outer surface turned downward and theirinner surface covered with condensed-water; third, their liability to foam and boil over without any self-operating remedy; fourth, the diffr culty of taking any one of the pipes for repairs, as cleaning, under any of the heretofore known arrangements.

The principal object and nature of my improvement comprises a remedy for the above four objections, with a method heretofore unknown for taking away the coi'ldensed-water as fast as it is made, and utilizing every portion of the heating-surface presented to the liquid under evaporation, and the nature of my invention is particularly distinguished from all other steampans by, first, its treble bottom forming two separate chambers; second, its double vertical pipes, forming an annular steam -space, in which the current of steam exposed to the heating-surface is from the top downward, and of the same temperature in every part of the pan; third, its selfreturning overflow, by which it is impossible for it to bail over; fourth, its compensating condensed-water pipes, by which either chamber, in discharging its waters, draws from and tends to discharge the condensed-water from the other chamber; fifth, the accessibility to every part ot'ils heating-surface to clean it without taking out or moving a pipe, and the fa-. cility with which one or more pipes may be taken out without disturbing the others; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construe tion by which the objects of my invention above mentioned are obtained.

In the annexed d rawings,which form apart of this specification, Figure l is an elevation, one-half in sect-ion. Fig. 2 is a plan without the skimming-trough. Fig. 3 is a vertical section at the line A B through the skimmingtrough and return'ingvalve. Fig. 4 is a horizontal section at the line C I) through the pipes for discharging the contents of the pan, and the condensed water pipe. cross-section through a steam and evaporatin .pipe, showing the annular steam-space.

The form of the pan may be of any of the usual styles-round or square,with sides parallel to each other in their height, or larger at the top-but the form which I prefer is round, six feetin diameter, and four feet high 011 the inside or above the "tube-plate. The treble bottom is formed of three plates, o 7b '5, lying in different horizontal planes, with their centers in the same vertical plane. The top plate, 9, I call the tubeplate; the middle one,h,the "division-plate, and the lower one, i, the bottom plate. The space between the tube and division plates should be about two inches, and forms the condensed-water chanr ber q, and the space between the division and bottom plates should be about six inches, and forms the steam-chamber p. The three plates forming this treble bottom are fastened together on their outer edges, as the whole is cast in one piece with a dischargiilg-opening in and through their common centers, the three plates being slightly and equally dishing,to facilitate the rapid discharge of the contents of the pan. The tube-plate is perforated with holes two and a quarter inches in diameter, and in the same vertical planes with Fig. 5isa c c, which are opened at bot-h ends, and the combination of the two pipes 0 and I), thus forming an annular steam-passage, 3, through which the steam rushes in a current from the top of the passage downward, being condensed on its way by the colder temperature of the liquid in the pan, and falling in the form of condensed water into the condensed water chamber q.

It is immaterial what metal the steam-pipes c c are made of, as there is so sensible pressure upon them. The evaporating-pipes b may be ofiron, copper, or brass, as the nature of theliquid to be operated upon may require, and the number of pipes in a pan should be ac cording to the pressure of steam to be used and the work to be done. The condensed-water that may accumulate in the steam-chamber falls into the reservoir m near the center, and the condensed-water from all of the evaporating-pipes falling into the chamber q runs out through the pipe or tube a, which is inserted into the division h and bottom plate, 1, as near as possible to the center and lowest point.

To discharge the water-reservoir m of the.

steam-chamber 1) into the common condensed water pipe, 9%, leading to the pump or floatboX, I fix the siphon-pipe d d (1 into the tube and divisioirplates and h, one leg of the siphon,(l,terminating in and near the bottom of the waterreservoir m in the steamchamber 1), the other leg, (I, of the siphon terminating in and near the lower end of the condensed-waterpipe-n, leading from the condensed-water chamber, the center and highest point in the turn c of the siphon-pipe being always about one-half as high above the tubeplateas the evaporating-pipes b b. The i11- side diameter of the main condensed-water pipe a, leading from the condensed-water chamber q, being two inches in diameter, and the diameter of the siphon-leg (1 outside being one and a quarter inch there remains an annular space three eighths of one inch wide around thelower end of the siphon-leg, which terminates in the main condensed-water pipe a. By this arrangement whenever the greater pressure in the steamchamber p forces the water in its reservoir an over or through the siphonpipe d (1 cl, the action of discharging said water into the main condensed-waterpipe at in the direction of its discharge produces a tendency to a vacuum in the annular space, and thus tends to draw from the c011- densed-water chamber q any water that it may contain, and in a like manner, if the discharge from the condensed-water chamber (1 through the annular space should be the most rapid, its elfect in passing the end of the siphon-leg d would be to form a partial vacuum in the siphon-pipe, and thus draw the water from reservoir m in the steam-chamber. This arrangement is what I term a compensating condense-water pipe.

On the outside 'of the top of the sides of the pan 0, I make a trough, Z, running entirely around the top of the sides of the pan, and having acapacity of about fifty gallons,

the outer rim of this trough Z being several inches higher than the inner side, which is formed by the side of the pan. At any place on the inner side of the trough l (as shown by the section, Fig.3) I place a common clackvalve, to, with the lower side of the hole, which it covers, on a level with the bottom of the inside of the trough, and with the valve being by its upper side and its seat slightly inclined upward, so that the weight of the valve will keep it shut against the pressure of a column of water six inches high. One of these valves will be sufficient for anordinary-size pan, and when the pan is used as a clarifier the skim- .mings and brushings of one charge will not,

under any circumstances, more than fill the trough, and if only partially full, after having settled until the next charge is nearly ready the valve a is raised and the clear juice runs back into the pan, while the rejected portion is to be run off through a large pipe fixed into the trough at any convenient place for that purpose, and opened at will by a plug or valve, as illustrated in Fig. 6. When this pan is used as an evaporator 'or battery and foams or runs over, the sirup falls into the trough Z, where, meeting with no heatingsurfaee, it remains tranquil until a suflicient quantity shall have run over to open by its pressure the valve a, through which it runs back into the pan, until the pressure diminishing the valve closes.

Having thus fully described the nature of my improvements, with the advantages to be derived from them, what I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

1. The treble bottom h i, forming the steam-chamber 1) below and the condensewater chamber q above, in connection with the steam-pipes 0, open at both ends and fixed into the division-plate h, and with the evaporating-pipes b, closed at the top and open at the bottom, and fixed into the tube-plate g, all combined substantially as described, and for the purposes set forth.

2 The compensating condense-water siphon-pipe (Z d d, with one leg, d, starting from the reservoir on in the steam-chamber, and passing up through the division h and tube-plateg into the pan, to about one-half the height of the evaporating-pipes Z), then turning down through the tube-plate g and in the same vertical plane with and terminating in and near the lower end of the condensewater pipe at of the condense-water chamber q, substantially as described and set forth.

Witnesses: SAMUEL H. GILMAN.

R. HARRIS, A. MoULToN. 

